Public shaming of drug addicts - Do you think its a deterant to drug use?

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Heroin use is rising because loads of people are addicted to prescription opiates who abuse them and nearly go bankrupt to get them (very expensive) and then switch to heroin because its cheap.

Tobacco use has switched too, now people vaporize, they are still using nicotine at about the same rate.

But prescription drugs are legal and heroin is not. So it seems like price has more to do with it than legality. People don't use more drugs when they are legal, they use more drugs when they are cheap.

Having the right to do something does not automatically make it the right thing to do.

“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”~Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814,

But prescription drugs are legal and heroin is not. So it seems like price has more to do with it than legality. People don't use more drugs when they are legal, they use more drugs when they are cheap.

Despite efforts to fight the opioid epidemic, deaths from drug overdoses reached an all-time high in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths from overdoses of prescription drugs and heroin continue to be the leading cause of unintentional death for Americans, rising 14% from 2013 to 2014.
Last year, 47,055 people died from drug overdoses -- 1.5 times greater than the number killed in car crashes. Opioids are involved in 61% of all drug overdose deaths.

The latest CDC data finds that deaths from natural opiates such as morphine, codeine and semisynthetic prescription pain killers like oxycodone and hydrocodone jumped 10% from 2013 to 2014. Deaths from heroin overdoses rose 26%.
The biggest increase in deaths was from from synthetic opioids, which went up 80%. According to the CDC, the increase in synthetic opioid deaths coincided with increased reports by law enforcement of illicitly manufactured fentanyl.
Prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and morphine are derived from the same poppy plants as heroin. Most heroin users initially start by using prescription painkillers.
The drugs' chemical structures are similar and they bind to the same receptors in the brain. Using these drugs results in an increased tolerance to pain and a sense of euphoria. However, at high doses, it can also slow breathing.

The states with the highest rates of overdose were West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Ohio.

Since 2000, opioid drug overdose deaths rose 200%. Nearly half a million lives have been lost to opioid drug overdoses since then.

"It's unbelievable," Michael Chitwood, Upper Darby's police superintendent, said Tuesday as he shared surveillance video of Meeney's heroin use, overdose and rescue. The superintendent chose to share the video, he said, so the community could see how pervasive the heroin and opioid epidemic is in our region.

Chitwood said he and his officers are thrilled to prevent a death with naloxone, but are frustrated because they feel it's just a stopgap. The naloxone will force the victim's body into painful withdrawal leaving them virtually no choice except to go out and use again that day.

"OK, we saved a life, for what? So they can continue to feed the path of addiction?" Chitwood asks rhetorically. "They need help. We as a society need to help them."

Treatment offerings for drug addiction, particularly opiates like heroin, are overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who need the services. Facilities are regularly full, and there are many barriers to getting care for those with and without insurance, especially the latter.

In nearby Philadelphia, which is considered "treatment rich" by advocates and officials because of the number of options for people seeking help, a person has a one in 10 chance of getting the treatment they need. That's on par with other cities around the country.

In 2014, more than 1,700 people died from drug overdoses in Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Delaware, an NBC10 examination of medical-examiner reports show.

It's an epidemic that has municipalities all around the region and across the country scrambling for solutions.

Fred Harran, Bensalem Township's public safety director, sends certified letters to a person's doctor when they overdose in his town on prescription painkillers, the major gateway to heroin. The goal is to alert doctors that the patients are dealing with an addiction problem.

Philadelphia is working to develop a diversion court to keep people suffering from drug addiction out of jail and get them into treatment.

Chitwood is in discussions to offer drug addicted people seeking treatment a safe harbor at the police station. A resident who voluntarily comes in asking for help would be transferred to a local treatment center. It's modeled on an innovative and praised program in Gloucester, Mass.

There's no date for when the Upper Darby and Philadelphia programs would launch.

In the meantime, Chitwood uses the only tool at his disposal: arrest.

Meeney was charged with possession after officers found four bags of heroin

He was arrested at his home Monday after testing confirmed the bags contained the drug, Chitwood said. Attorney information for Meeney wasn't immediately available.

Chitwood doesn't think it's a solution, but he feels it's his only option to try and get the man some treatment.

Maybe he'll be mandated to enroll in a drug program. Maybe he won't.

"My hope is that he gets the help for the addiction. He’s one of thousands of people out there in our community that are addicted to heroin. It is the biggest problem we deal with," Chitwood said.

Do you think taxpayor dollars should be used to revive these people? How far do you think others should go to keep reviving them?

Police and drug activist support groups strongly disagree on the use and purpose of 'shaming' addicts in videos and photos

Few people could likely forget the photo.

Two adults, a grandmother and her boyfriend, slumped over in the front seats of their car, while a four-year-old grandchild sits in the back, staring blankly out the window.

Their car had been stopped from crashing into a primary school bus by an off-duty police officer.

While the adults were charged with child endangerment and are awaiting trial, the photo of their possible overdose has gone viral, prompting strong criticism and shaming of their ability to look after a child.

Brian Allen, director of public service and safety at East Liverpool police in Ohio, where the adults are in custody, told The Independent that the response to their photo has been "phenomenal".

"The photo shined a light on a problem that we fight every day," he said.

"One of our hopes in releasing that photograph was the addict when sober may think twice about shooting up when the kids are there, and will at least put them in custody of a sober person."

The couple, James Acord and Rhonda Hasek, will have a "full drug treatment programme" available to them, according to Mr Allen.

“We all agree upon one thing and it’s quite simple - the child should not be in that situation. The child is no longer in that situation now.”

The one incident in Ohio exposes polarised opinions surrounding an epidemic of drug addiction in the US.

Drug addiction support groups have claimed these viral videos and photographs highlight a desperate need for addicts to get help and should not be used to shame people.

Kelli Pierson, director of family support and administrator of The Addict’s Mom, a support group that started nine years ago in Florida, said the emphasis should have been more on the couple that needed drug treatment rather than just on the child.

"There could have been a parent in the back seat of that car, or a social worker, or there could have been nobody," she said. "We need to focus on getting people help, rather than in jail."

But the scenario has played out countless times, and not just in East Liverpool, Ohio.

A photo of a , after her parents were found dead and unconscious, went viral. The one-month baby girl had a seven-year-old sister, and two brothers aged three and two.

She told WBZ-TV that she wanted to get clean and regain custody of her daughter. She did not want the video to define her life.

In Massachusetts, four people die per day of drug overdoses, and the Lawrence police report that children are now involved in around 10 per cent of cases relating to drugs.

In the three cases above, the children were removed from the adults’ custody.

Jim Peake, founder of online community group Parents of Drug Addicts, said the one thing missing from drug addiction treatment was empathy.

“There is very little of it,” he said. “For the addict or their families.”

He said the situation is unlikely to improve in the near future.

In New Hampshire, heroin was identified as a risk factor of 7.62 per cent of child neglect cases in 2016 until April. The figure is up from 4.8 per cent from October to December 2014, according to the state division for children, youth and families, as reported by the New York Times.

Mr Peake questioned the use of social media to raise awareness of the issue. He described the videos as morbid curiosity, like when drivers slow down to look at a car accident.

"People do post those things [videos] occasionally on my group’s page and I take them down because they add no value to the community of the group," he said.

"People are looking for help, not how many overdoses we have this week in our city or state."

Ms Pierson, of The Addict's Mom, insisted that drug addicts should be treated with respect as human beings.

Her 42-year-old son has just celebrated his 43rd day in recovery, after a decade of heroin, meth and opioid abuse.

"The most damaging three words a parent can say are: ‘Not my child’," she said.

"It can happen in any family."

She talked to her son this week on Skype and was delighted by his improvement.

"I noticed a change in his voice. When he smiled, his eyes lit up. He smiled with his whole face."

MCKEESPORT, Pa. --
Two adults were found dead of suspected drug overdoses after their 7-year-old daughter told school officials in Pennsylvania she couldn't wake them up.

The Allegheny County medical examiner said the bodies of 26-year-old Christopher Dilly and 25-year-old Jessica Lally were found Monday evening in their McKeesport apartment. A 9-month-old girl, 3-year-old boy and 5-year-old boy who were inside the home were taken to a hospital to be evaluated.

Lt. Andrew Schurman says it appears the adults might have been dead for a day or two. He says they are believed to have died from a drug overdose and foul play isn't suspected.

Lally's sister Courtney told WPXI that Jessica and her boyfriend Chris were addicted to heroin.

"My sister wasn't the person she became when it came to drugs. She wasn't the person I knew. It was like the drugs had taken over and at first we didn't know it was heroin," said Courtney Lally, Jessica Lally's sister.

Since February, Courtney had been trying to get police and child protective services involved.

When she shared pictures of the deplorable home Jessica and Chris lived in with police, Jessica became furious and moved the family across town.

"I feel like if I wouldn't have done that, it would have been way different and we could have made up months ago and she'd be here today," Courtney Lally said.

Courtney will now go to court to try to get custody of her nieces and nephews. She said she has a message for others fighting to help their loved ones who are in the throes of addiction.

"Just don't stop trying. Keep pushing it. Make them understand you love them and you're doing this because you love them," she said.

Earlier this week, another suspected overdose occurred on the same Pennsylvania street. Both incidents are under investigation.

The footage, shot in America, shows a couple slumped and unresponsive
At one stage the daughter begins kicking her father to try and wake him
The cameraman says: 'You cannot be like this around your kids'

He recorded the moment and posted the footage to Facebook on Tuesday. The video begins with the boy and his father sitting across from one another at a table. Mr Bickerstaff-Clark reaches over and grabs his hand before delivering the message.

“What? What do you mean, my mum?” he asks. “How?”

“From drugs,” he is told, before breaking down and crying into the arms of a woman sitting next to him.

“I’m sorry” and “I love you” are all Mr Bickerstaff-Clark can muster. After two minutes, he looks to the person filming and tells him, “That’s enough”.

The video been viewed more than 14 million times. Mr Bickerstaff-Clark said he had the moment filmed “for any and every addict with children”.

“Today I had to tell my eight-year-old son that his mommy died from a drug overdose,” he wrote.

“This is the realisation and reality of our disease. This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. My son has no mother because of heroin. Please get help so our children don’t have to suffer.”

He reveals that he is 94 days clean and that the video is real.

“This was not staged,” he wrote on Facebook.

The video has received thousands of comments. Most were supportive.

“I hope your video opens many eyes. Stay strong,” Sheila Keith wrote.

“Prayers for your family, especially your son. He will need you to stay clean, so keep up the good job — 95 days now. If you reach at least one addict with children, your video was worth it,” Michelle Greene wrote.

Deasia Barnett said sharing the footage was the right thing to do.

“Him having this filmed was a great thing. He’s hurting and the pain is real yes. But he is trying to make sure nobody else’s child experiences what his child had if possible.”

But others were more critical.

“His mommy died of a bad choice! I wish that little boy had never met either of you,” Dave Lamb wrote.

“(I don’t know) what’s worse: The fact that they thought it was a good idea to record such a devastating moment or the fact that so many (people) seem to be OK with this being recorded,” Delshawn McDaniel wrote.

Heroin use in Ohio is an epidemic. Last month police released shocking footage of an adult couple who had overdosed in the front seat of their car as a boy, 4, say in the back.

James Acord and Rhonda Pasek were taken to hospital after an officer spotted their vehicle swerving in and out of traffic.

Officer Kevin Thompson said he could not believe his eyes when he approached the driver’s window.

In a statement accompanying the photographs, Ohio Police wrote that it was “necessary” to show the other side of drug use.

“We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can’t speak for himself but we are hopeful this story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.”

Across Ohio, a person dies every two hours and 52 minutes from a drug overdose. The Columbus Dispatch reports eight people died every day last year and 3050 people died over the course of the year.

Heroin deaths are on the rise and a public forum was held this week to discuss the community’s concerts around heroin use.

Last week, 48 people in Columbus overdosed on heroin in two days. A bad batch was blamed.

HOPE, Ind. — Authorities in Indiana have released photos of a young mother who was found passed out from a heroin overdose last weekend—with a baby in the back seat of the car.

“My intention with these photos is not to shame the mother, although I realize it may appear embarrassing,” Hope Town Marshal Matthew Tallent told reporters. “I honestly think this picture should be used as an educational tool because I want people to see what this drug is doing.”

The matter unfolded on Saturday in the parking lot of Dollar General in Hope, Indiana, as Erika Hurt, 25, was found unresponsive but with a syringe still being clutched in her hand.

But that’s not all they found. The woman’s 10-month-old son was also discovered crying in his car seat.

Police revived the woman after administering two doses of Narcan, a nasal spray that works to reverse suspected Opioid overdoses. Hurt was transported to the Columbus Regional Hospital for further evaluation, and later taken to Bartholomew County Jail, where she was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and child neglect.

Tallent says that if the woman hadn’t fell unconscious in the parking lot, she could have endangered other drivers.

“Had this woman not passed out from this and attempted to drive right afterward, she could have [driven] down the road, passed out two minutes later and hit a car with a family in it, killed every one of them,” he told CNN. “That’s the thing that’s so shocking to me to think about.”

Child Protective Services was also called to the scene, and the baby was turned over to the custody of Hurt’s mother, Jami Smith.

Smith said that while she disagrees with her daughter’s drug use, she doesn’t believe the photos should have been made public either. She told reporters that Hurt had just been released from rehab this month.

But police state that they want others to know the damaging effects of heroin and that it not only is a problem in America’s urban areas, but in the small towns of the nation as well.

As previously reported, a similar situation made headlines last month when an Ohio grandmother and her friend were found in the car passed out from a heroin overdose. The woman’s grandson was riding in the back seat as the two were on their way to the hospital to obtain help.

The City of East Liverpool posted to social media an unblurred photo of the grandmother, Rhonda Pasek, 50, and her friend James Accord, 47—along with the young boy—stating that it needed to “be a voice for the children.”

“We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug,” officials explained. “We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can’t speak for himself but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.”

Pasek was sentenced to serve six months in the Columbiana County Jail. Accord was sentenced to almost a year behind bars for being behind the wheel.

Revelation 9:21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries (drug use literally) or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

φαρμάκων pharmakōn 5331 the use of medicine, drugs or spells

The greek word translated as sorcery comes from pharmakeuó (to administer drugs) same place the word pharmacy comes from, so literally drugs.

I think a perfect Hell for everyone voting 'yes' would be an eternity of walking in other people's shoes

I attended rehab and AA for alcoholism, and the people were some of the most realist and knowledgeable people I've ever met, gained by their struggle.

If any of you went to these places with this tripe, you would look like damned fools.

If you even made it out of there.
This thread is a complete shame.

Though I more or less agree with you on this one, at the same time; I'm not surprised the issue you take (with the proposed solutions of some) revolves around you.

Yours is very typical of the "addict."

You may have been been helped by a rehab addiction program in some critical way in the area of external substance abuse but obviously, you still have major addiction issues you have yet to deal with.

Perhaps out of not knowing how...being that theory and how to do not often meet.

External drug abuse is nothing more than an internal "drug" abuse issue eventually leading to an addiction to an external one.

Emotions are chemical. Emotions allowed to dominate beyond any norm are a form of drug abuse.

Yours is ever obvious.

You still need help.

Just about your every post is ever one negative over-reaction or another to someone.

Allow this post to shame you; for what little good that often proves to be, thus, my agreement with you on your above.

Or allow it to challenge you to reflect on the fact that you have some serious hostility issues you have yet to apply the Cross of Christ to, that could liberate you to the joy in Him that is every Believer's.

I hope for you, that you choose the latter of these two...

That you choose to walk in the reality of the fact that...

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Galatians 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Looked at the poll results, and am not surprised that the majority on here think that shaming drug addicts deters drug use.

You're an idiot

You're an idiot

And you're an idiot

Idiots everywhere

Youre the idiot, you quoted me completely out of context, i didnt say what you snipped as my stance at all, i asked a question about what another member said:

Originally Posted by ok doser

drug sellers and buyers should be executed - swiftly, publicly and painfully

Originally Posted by Angel4Truth

Pharmacies should close and pharmacists and doctors be executed along with people who got addicted because of surgery or injury/illness - loads of people are addicted today to opiates initially prescribed for pain for a myriad of reasons and are on them long term and later may seek them out when they find they dont work as good as they once did the dose goes up and up and then the expense has them turning to heroin which is cheaper, what of them?